[rubywrangler]

I've been a little gimpy since faceplanting on the Loowit a few weeks ago... some kind of butt sprain or hamstring tendon thing... but after a weekend backpack on the coast and a relatively easy dayhike/scramble to Coleman Pinnacle, I decided to add some off-trail travel and elevation into the mix. And just to make things interesting and extra miserable, I decided to do so on a rainy day with zero visibility. The forecast for Saturday was just a tiny bit of rain in the morning/afternoon and clearing in the evening, but I failed to account for the fact it had been raining the previous day/night, and that the Bare mountain trail is totally overgrown (like Mineral Creek level, I-know-my-feet-are-down-there-somewhere overgrown). By the time I reached the turn uphill from Bear creek, I could not be more wet if I had jumped in a lake.

trail

To that point there had been a few different types of berries to distract me from the general unpleasantness. Climbing up toward Bare it was just me in a soggy cloud surrounded by wet brush. I trudged up the switchbacks slowly, cursing every wet leaf and branch that touched me. I left the trail and climbed up to the ridge, where I took a break, ate a PB&J, and gave myself a pep talk. The gist of it was, you really don't want to go back through that, so keep going. I continued up the ridge for a bit. Dropped down to talus on the north to go around a gendarme. Decided to stay there because I couldn't see my way back to the ridge (or anything else). The rest of the day was filled with hopping shifty wet talus, interspersed with a variety of terrain such as steep wet heather (used microspikes briefly), flat wet heather, and blessed slabby granite. I couldn't see anything more than 25 yards away, and was very happy to be wearing my stickiest trail runners.

north of the ridge

soaked and dirty

At about 6pm the sun poked through the clouds. At 6:01 the mosquitoes came out. At 6:02 I was distracted by the views opening up, and tripped and smashed my finger and camera (luckily just a scrape and camera still works). It cleared just long enough for me to see where I could get back to the ridge. By the time I got there, I was socked in again. I turned on my phone and sent Julia a "wish you were here / why do i do these things" text. Then continued up the ridge for a few hundred feet and started traversing to Coney lake. Should've stayed lower for flatter, easier terrain. I arrived at the (cloud-free!!) lake basin at ~8pm and had it all to myself. Poked around for a bit and took some photos before setting up camp on a big slab. Chugged a Reuben's IPA, ate dinner, made a hot water bottle to revive my freezing wet feet, passed out.

clouds lifting a bit

looking back toward canoe

lake kanim

passage back to the ridge ahead

cloudy ridge

more soup

beacon

coney basin

looking SE to snoq crest

On Sunday I hit the snooze button several times and finally crawled out of the tent at 7am to glorious, brilliant sunshine. Had breakfast and laid out all of my wet things to dry, then wandered around the lakes. What a lovely place. I wish I had planned a layover day. Alas.

camp

alpine tidepool

moon

Around 10am I packed up and strolled up the ridge to Lennox, where I finally got a look at the ground I had covered yesterday. Didn't stay long since I had gotten a late start moving. I headed down the ridge and then retraced my steps from yesterday. Had a close call with a boulder that shifted as I was stepping off of it; gained a nice bruise on my calf and lost a big swath of skin. Stayed a bit lower on the traverse for more heather and slabs and less talus. Made it back to the ridge below canoe at about 2:45, and walked up the ridge a little ways before deciding that I should skip the summit, since I was hiking out by an unknown route on a trail that I wasn't sure I could find or follow. But it turned out to be pretty straightforward.

ridge views

summit in the center distance

gentle summit ridge

canoe and some more of yesterday's route

summit views

the route

slabs > talus

lost? ferns

canoe

bear lake

more heather and boulders to the bear-paradise saddle

I descended from the bear-paradise saddle, quickly checked out the various trails fanning out from the largest bear lake, and found the right one. Keeping in mind the advice in Justus's report ("don't lose the trail"), I followed it down past a mine and into the valley. Missed a turn a little ways past the steam donkey where the trail enters the forest, but hopped back on it easily. From there, it was an easy walk back to the bare mountain trail. Which is much more pleasant when dry.

descending to bear lakes

(big) bear lake

mine along the trail

steam donkey

camp 1

I passed a few other hikers within 1/2 mile of the trailhead on either end of this trip but otherwise, I had complete solitude. And I think my butt sprain is healed

[flatsqwerl]

see any fish at Coney?

[rubywrangler]

nope

[Tom]

I don't believe Coney has fish and tends to thaw quite late in the year. Nice area.

[fourteen410]

Way to persevere! I've always wanted to check out Coney but heard the route wasn't much fun. Great pics regardless

[drewcoll]

Nice work!

[fffej50]

when we were there, almost 40 years ago there were fish but very small. I had talked to a state fisheries biologist who told me that they had repeatedly planted it.beautiful place.

[Bootpathguy]

[Bootpathguy]

Thanks for the report & memories. Took a photo from the same location

[puzzlr]

Thanks for the report. It's fun to see such good photos of this area without snow, having just been there earlier this spring. I'm glad the weather cleared up for your second day.

[BeardoMcGrath]

[neek]

thanks for the reminder that i need to visit coney in summer, having been there 4 times in winter for some reason. that's some surprisingly great looking terrain.

[rubywrangler]

Thanks for all the comments! It was pretty enjoyable terrain, once I could see it. But I had several close calls with sliding boulders on both days - in addition to the one that got me - so recommend extra caution on the talus slopes along this route. It is possible to avoid them for much of the way by taking a slightly more meandering path.

[Cyclopath]

Realty beautiful photos. And it sounds like you put in work to get them.

[KascadeFlat]

Nothing new to add besides awesome report! I have been meaning to get up Lennox and Phelps and you are inspiring me to brave the road (and maybe even the trail!) to get out there.